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Sous vide cooking


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#1 Mackus

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Posted 31 August 2016 - 08:22 AM

This has come up in a couple other threads, thought it may deserve it's own.

 

Anyone else been doing this?  I recently got an immersion circulator and vacuum sealer, and I freaking love it.  Takes all of the guesswork as to temperature out of cooking steaks, roasts, and vegetables. 

 

I've been cooking something a couple times a week sous vide and have found almost everything to work out really well.  I've tried both relatively quick water baths for steaks and chops or fish, and also longer multi-day tougher cuts like brisket and beef ribs.

 

My favorite thing so far is steak.  I've been having the butcher cut me crazy thick steaks, like 2.5-3" thick porterhouses or ribeyes to serve up to 4 people, cooking them at about 130 for an hour or two, then searing them in a really hot cast iron skillet to get a great crust.  I also tried searing on the grill over the weekend, I put a half chimney of lit charcoal directly on my main grill grate, then propped up a second grate on some bricks so it was almost directly overtop, an inch or two over the coals, and then seared.  Great marks and flavor and all but the very edge of the steak stays completely perfectly rare to medium rare (or however you like it cooked based on the temp).



#2 McNulty

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    la cerveza está muy fría

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Posted 31 August 2016 - 01:13 PM

How much was it?  I'm very interested in this as well.


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#3 Mackus

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Posted 31 August 2016 - 02:19 PM

It was a gift so nothing, but I have this immersion circulator and this vacuum sealer.  It's fairly expensive up front, but you could do it for cheaper.  My friend who got it for me uses a different set up.  He uses his crockpot (one with a physical hi/low/off switch, not electronic controls) and basic PID controller with a temperature probe.  I think you can do it without a vacuum sealer, just use ziploc bags and dip them in the water carefully to displace all the air before sealing.

 

My friend sets his up in the morning before going to work.  Puts his vacuum sealed bags in the crock pot with ice to keep them cold, and sets the controller up on a timer so at like noon or whatever it turns on.  Once the controller is on, it senses that the temperature of the water (ice) is way below the desired setting so it enables power to the crock pot outlet, it starts cooking, melts the ice and eventually equalizes at the desired 130ish or whatever temperature.



#4 McNulty

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    la cerveza está muy fría

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Posted 31 August 2016 - 05:31 PM

Cool. How is this different from pressure cooking?

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#5 Mackus

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Posted 01 September 2016 - 08:09 AM

Complete and precise temperature control at the touch of a button I think is the main difference.  It's a low-and-slow type of cooking.  The longer cook times can be a hindrance if you're getting home then starting, or you could treat it like a crock pot where you set it and then go out and do stuff and come back and it's all done and ready to be finished and served.  The additional time is all non-active time, unlike something like BBQ where you still need to put some work in controlling the temperature of your smoker while the hunk of meat is cooking (unless you've got a pellet cooker).

 

Also, it's really handy for things like chicken.  The reason you have to cook chicken to an internal temp of 165 is to ensure all the microbes are killed, getting up to that temp just for a second makes it a near-certainty that everything nasty is dead.  You also can ensure that by spending a longer time at a lower temperature.  So if you set the water temp to 140 and hold the chicken breast there for like 45 minutes, all the microbes are also killed.  And since its a lower temp, the chicken stays much, much juicier.  Leave the skin on and then sear it in a pan, and you've got a crispy-skinned, but incredibly juicy chicken breast. 

 

http://www.seriousea...ken-breast.html


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